


swiftly fly the years

by cinderlily



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-02-20
Updated: 2011-02-19
Packaged: 2017-10-15 20:17:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/164572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinderlily/pseuds/cinderlily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Noah needs help, so he goes to his Nana. Part of the <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/collections/down_is_where_we_came_from/works">DIWWCF verse</a>. A missing scene set during Christmas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	swiftly fly the years

**Author's Note:**

> As the winner of our "Name the Band" contest, this was written for [](http://jengeorge.livejournal.com/profile)[**jengeorge**](http://jengeorge.livejournal.com/), who really rules and is patient and hasn't killed me for taking like two months to get this out. [](http://carolinecrane.livejournal.com/profile)[**carolinecrane**](http://carolinecrane.livejournal.com/) did the betaing, and the encouraging and the pointing out of glaring mistakes so really this piece was written surrounded by love and I'm thankful for that. ♥ (Oh and yes, the title is from "Sunrise, Sunset". I couldn't help myself. Not the Bright Eyes version. _Fiddler_ style, yo.)

Noah’s nana wasn’t one for silences; in fact he’d spent so much of his youth listening to her fill in every second of empty air that he could fall asleep to it. So when he told her that he was going to marry someone, marry _Kurt_ , he wasn’t sure what he expected but he definitely didn’t expect complete lack of response. Her mouth was a tight line across her face, her eyes wide and fuck, _was she tearing up?_

“C’mon, you knew about Kurt, Nana,” he tried cautiously. She did, he had told her about him barely three weeks into dating when he did his weekly check in with her. Granted he slipped it into the conversation somewhere between her talking about the latest scandal at the Synagogue and how her manicurist was moving to Miami but he was sure that she had heard.

Still she looked stricken. She opened her mouth to speak but then decided against it and closed it tightly. His palms began to sweat. Maybe he should have brought Sarah with him as a wingman of sorts. His Nana was nothing if not hopelessly wrapped around her grandchildren’s fingers and there was strength in numbers.

He waited a few long moments, brushed his palms against his pant legs to dry them off. “I wanted to see if the Rabbi would do our service even if Kurt isn’t exactly Jewish…”

“Scha,” she held up both hands to her mouth. “Not only are you marrying a man but you are marrying a _goy_?”

“Casey married a Catholic,” he pointed out, willing to throw his cousin back under that bus. He remembered the way the family had freaked at that, even though Casey’s wife was genuinely the coolest person he knew. (Okay, she made amazing cookies and was willing to sit back with Noah and marvel at the craziness of his family like they were on Mystery Science Theater at family occasions.)

But she wasn’t paying attention. Her eyes were averted to the floor, her fingers in her mouth. She rambled something in Yiddish, too fast for him to catch and then looked up at the ceiling. “What have I done to deserve this?”

“ _Nana_ ,” he felt his eyes go round. He saw his mother in the concerned corners of her lips. He’d always thought she was the one to get him; it was a strange let down to feel her disappointment. “You didn’t do anything. I’m not marrying Osama Bin Laden. He’s a nice guy, I swear. You’ll love him, I love him.”

She seemed to pause at that, like the concept of him loving Kurt hadn’t actually passed her mind. She tilted her head and let out a long breath before lifting a hand to his face. “Oh Noah. My motek, what will I do with you?”

“Call the Rabbi?” Noah asked, hopefully.

She stilled for a long moment, which was worse than her rants by ten fold. He was used to the loud ranting nana, not this tight lipped upset nana. It made her look tired and sad and … well. Old. Which gave him a tight squeeze to the chest. Her long nails tapped against her chin.

“Okay, we’ll call Rabbi Lippe.”

*

Rabbi Lippe was an interim Rabbi, as Rabbi Litchfield had retired while Noah was in Los Angeles. He knew Rabbi Litchfield wasn't quite as old as his Nana, but in his memory he'd always been older and wiser than anyone he'd known. In the two or three years he halfway attended Sunday school and the times he went to services he looked at him like he was a scholar, a prophet.

Rabbi Lippe looked more or less like just a regular guy. Maybe his mid thirties, reddish hair and a cleanly shaved face. It kind of threw Noah off when he came to the door. But that was forgotten when he realized that his Nana considered him to be just as unquestionable as Rabbi Litchfield.

"Rabbi, this is my grandson," she said, her tone friendly for the first time that night. "Noah, say hello to the Rabbi."

So yeah, that was kind of uncomfortable. He'd kind of hoped that he'd have the upper hand here but he didn't know this Rabbi from Adam. "Hello."

"It's nice to meet you," the Rabbi shook his hand firmly and gave an earnest smile. "After all the wonderful things your grandmother has said about you."

'Just wait,' he thought. Instead he nodded, "Thanks for coming over in the middle of the night."

"Estelle made it sound urgent," he looked between Noah and his Nana. "I hope nothing's wrong."

"Would you like something to eat?" she hedged and Noah's stomach dropped a little. He honestly hadn't thought that this was the way she'd take this. Before the Rabbi could answer she waved her hands. "I'll make us something. You're skinny, you need to find a wife to cook for you."

"That isn't necessary..." the Rabbi gave a futile attempt but she was gone before he could. He looked at Noah with a laugh. "I swear the entirety of the shul is trying to marry me off."

Noah laughed, cause it seemed the polite thing to do. After a second of just standing there he thought that maybe he should offer them a seat. He thought about going to the kitchen table but second guessed when he realized he had to seize this moment away from his Nana. He led them into the living room and offered the Rabbi his choice of seats before he took a chair.

There is no easy way to start the conversation, but he could hear his Nana's noise in the kitchen like a timer set to go off. "My grandmother called you cause I'm getting married."

"Mazel tov!" the Rabbi smiled but looked a little confused. "We usually set up meetings for that during the day and with your fiancee with you. Is she from here?"

"That's the thing," Noah rubbed his sweaty palms on his thighs. "My fiancé isn't exactly Jewish or ... female."

He felt like he was in the principal's office, looking down at the ground. Only he never felt that nervous in the actual principal's office. The principal was lame and what was the worst that he could do? Give him detention? He practically had a designated desk in the detention classroom.

The uncomfortably long silence was only broken when Noah finally looked up at the Rabbi. "His name is Kurt and yeah, he's from here."

"We do interfaith marriages often," Rabbi Lippe said slowly. "But I get the feeling your grandmother called me because of the other part of the equation."

Noah suppressed an eye roll. "It isn't like there are warm and fuzzy feelings about gay couples in the Bible."

"The Talmud was written a long time ago, and it was written second hand. By man himself, not by Gd. As for homosexuality there is only one passage that talks about it in any form. It is more unholy for you to break Shabbos and I don't exactly walk to work."

If it wouldn't be really weird he would hug the Rabbi, actually he could kiss him on both cheeks. The entrance of his Nana, holding a plate of sandwiches and bottles of water, stopped him from both. He looked back and forth between his Nana and the Rabbi.

"Noah, why don't you go to the kitchen for a while," the Rabbi gave him a small smile and wink. "So we can talk."

He did not have to be told twice, instead he grabbed a sandwich (his stomach had relaxed enough to realize he was starving) and practically ran out of the room. He sat at the kitchen table that was probably older than his mother and listened to the indistinct voices from the other room.

For the first time in a really long time he closed his eyes and just prayed.

*

His Nana was a talker, he knew that, but when he looked at the clock and he'd been in the kitchen for well over forty five minutes he was not filled with confidence. It was giving him time to think, which was probably a bad thing. Because this whole thing stemmed from the fact that Kurt said "No", that he didn't take the proposal seriously enough to assume Noah was all in.

Yeah, okay, it was probably a little quicker than normal but when had he ever been normal? He knew what he wanted and he went after it. That was his way. He guessed if he was Kurt he could see a few of the things that would speak against this being the best idea but that didn't matter. He _wanted_ this. Screw everything else.

He checked his phone for probably the hundredth time, seeing another missed call from Kurt just like the last time he checked. He would answer, probably should call him back but the whole thing seemed to be up in the air and he didn't want Kurt to think that he was half assing this. He was going to do it right, even if he'd been kind of stumbling through the beginning of it.  

The clock ticked over to another minute and he swore time was slowing down as he waited for whatever conversation was going on in the other room to end. He wondered what the Rabbi could say to make the whole thing less awkward. He'd been a bartender long enough to know how to listen but giving out advice still seemed beyond him. He usually just offered beer and he knew the only thing in the house would be Manischewitz wine.

Finally, somehow, his Nana walked into the kitchen. She looked, for lack of a better word, abashed. It was not a look he'd ever seen on her so he was expecting the worst. Instead she took a seat beside him and put her hand out to brush at his cheek, something she hadn't done in years.

"Oh Noah," she sighed. "This boy."

" _Kurt_."

She half way smiled, "You love him?"

"Yeah, Nana," he nodded firmly. "I really do."

She stared at him for a while, a look of concentration. "And he loves you?"

Noah tried not to think about the problems with Kurt, but even with that he could answer honestly. "Yeah, he does."

"Well, okay then. Rabbi said he'll do the service, is his family religious?"

Noah gaped at her, mouth wide as he tried to catch up with the conversation. "His family is... but he isn't?"

"Do you have a date set?"

"He hasn't exactly said yes," he looked down at the table.

His Nana let out a cluck. "And why not? My grandson is quite a catch. He thinks he could do better?"

"I think he thinks I'm not serious about it," he admitted. "Which was why I came here in the first place."

She lifted a brow, which was a look he probably got from her. "You're supposed to ask the gi... the parent's permission. Not your grandmother, Noah."

"I've got his parent's permission," he said and tried not preen when he got a look of approval. "What I need is a _ring_."

She pursed her lips for a long moment. "And you came to me?"

"I don't want papa's ring," he assured her, and tried not to take it personally as she relaxed. "But I do know you know people who could help me find one."

"Tomorrow?"

He shook his head. "Tonight."

She paused and pursed her lips again. "This is that important to you?" But she didn't require an answer, apparently. "The Mercers have a store... I could call them."

He kissed her on the cheek and thought about the donation he should make to the Temple. Cause whatever they paid that Rabbi, it wasn't nearly enough.


End file.
